To Tweet or not to Tweet?

Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.

-Victor Hugo

As an already seasoned (check at least five times a day or feel withdrawal symptoms) personal user of Facebook, I guess it is surprising that until this week I had only really used Twitter for my past employers in a professional capacity. It is however true and a fact that I decided to remedy following pressure from various friends and family who repeatedly assured me that it was a great tool to find job listings and to connect with recruiters.

Whether or not it was a good idea on my part remains to be seen, as Twitter has become ten times more addictive for me than Facebook has ever been. At first I admit I wasn't too sure where to start - I was already following a few celebs and book publishers from when I set my account up years ago - but once I began to add more companies and started to get information of personal interest to me up on my feed, I found it hard to stop. Now my smartphone is buzzing every few minutes with a new follower and I can't deny that I feel a heady rush of excitement every time it goes off (much as it annoys those around me).

Yes Twitter is good for jobs, it is great having vacancies in my field all in a handy place and it is particularly useful if you wish to target a specific company (see... homing missile). BUT it is also very easy to get lost in your own little Twitter world, especially when you have a collection of the things you are most interested in and a chorus of like-minded individuals all on one continuous stream... and don't even get me started on all the competitions!!

At the moment I'm guessing it is more of a positive than a negative for my job search. I'll just have to be strong and remember not to let all the tweeting drown out my own song... 

A Change of Tactics

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

-Sun Tzu

After a few weeks of limited response to numerous applications I have decided that a change in tactics is called for. As much as I loved receiving emails from recruiters with variations on the theme of 'it's not you, it's the competition' I realised that in order to proceed I needed to identify what I was doing wrong.

I started by trawling through websites hosting sample cover letters, so I could see what 'experts' advised. I was somewhat disappointed to find that my letter template was of the same, if not better, standard than those shown. I then, in the hope they could offer me some tips, tried to contact the recruiters who had so gently turned me down for roles that I had felt I was a good fit for. Unfortunately despite their kind words in their automated emails I did not hear anything in response to my pleas for help.

So on my own again I've decided that 'less is more' and 'quality over quantity' will be my new mantras when it comes to job applications. 

Instead of using the confetti system I will be pursuing a targeted campaign - think homing missile rather than airstrike - let's just hope it isn't a dud...

Keep on trucking...

'Beware of Monotony; it's the mother of all deadly sins' 

- Edith Warton

Freshly returned from working as a journalist in Ukraine I was positive that I would quickly secure a new job. I knew that times were tough and that it might take a few applications and interviews before finding the right fit but I managed to completely underestimate the monotony and pure frustration of sending out dozens of applications only to hear nothing.

It is as if a void had swallowed my life. Well done for working three hours refining that covering letter - you may as well have been in a coma or twiddling your thumbs or watching reality TV - anything would have been more productive. So after multiplying that process by a hundred you can imagine how pleased I was to get an immediate response to a covering letter and CV that I had worked a whole day upon.

Excited I opened the email and read the following:

'Dear.. it would help if you correctly spelled the name of the person you are applying to'.  

My annoyance boiled over - I had finally gained a response and it had been to point out a fault with my application. Admittedly it was a stupid mistake to make and one that made me laugh later when thinking of how much time I had spent proofreading and editing the main body of my cover letter, but that didn't stop the crushing feeling that came from my first reply in weeks.

Guess the main thing is to remain positive - hey at least I finally got a response...